Affordable care encourages healthy living: Theory and evidence from China's new cooperative medical scheme
研究发现，具有遗赠动机的医疗保险可能通过降低长寿成本来鼓励健康行为，而非引发事前道德风险；利用中国新型农村合作医疗的独特实验，发现该计划使吸烟率下降约9%。
In developing a theory of medical insurance and health behavior with bequest motive, we discover that whether ex ante moral hazard or the opposite occurs hinges upon the differential effects of health behavior on morbidity and mortality. Providing insurance can encourage healthy living by making longevity more affordable. We test the theory utilizing a unique experiment of China introducing the new cooperative medical scheme, unique in its long-term credibility necessary for our proposed channel. This scheme reduced cigarette use by around 9%. Further empirical analysis failed to falsify our theory or the alternative mechanism of health insurance reducing stress and thus the demand for cigarettes and hard liquor. Both newly proposed mechanisms alleviate concerns over ex ante moral hazard caused by providing affordable care for the poor.